[Gllug] Playstation 2 Linux

[Sarah Ewen]

Hello,

This would be one for me then! I work at SCEE, and handle Linux for
PlayStation 2 stuff for PAL countries & support wise, the states too
:)
..but all that really means is that I've got root on the webserver.
It's not particularly glamourous.

There's been a few replies, but I can hopefully add a few tidbits.

It's very usable with a PAL TV if you use a Euro Scart AV cable
(that's what SCEE call them I think), and only use the console. X
supports PAL but the real estate barely makes it worth it. It's as
simple as editing /etc/X11/XGSConfig, if you want to experiment, just
swap the commented VideoMode lines.

The distribution is based on Kondara Linux, which is based on RedHat
from just after 6.2 time, and yes, everything will seem very dated yet
familiar.

The ethos behind the kit was to cater for the Linux community by
providing a full distribution, and also cater to the graphics and
hardware programmers by giving them development tools. We provide
hardware manuals and access to the vector units through th e Linux
kit. It's a very unusual combination of open source philosophy and the
usual highly competitive and secretive environment the video games
industry is reknowned for, and it doesn't sit perfectly with both, but
having seen it from the inside I'm very impressed that it was released
at all, let alone with 6 of the 7 professional developer hardware
manuals.

Because of all the real power of the PS2 being locked up in the vector
units, you're looking at a 300Mhz MIPS chip running Linux on its own,
and yeah, it's not going to seem as zippy as you'd have expected; 32MB
RAM doesn't leave much free once you've started X. However, if you run
window maker, or blackbox, or fvmw2 or suchlike, it helps immensley.
There are small fast browers like dillo that you can use for basic web
browsing, but yeah, firefox does run eventually. One of our users
actually fixed a MIPS based problem that was breaking firefox builds
for other MIPS platforms too :)

If you're interested in uses of Open Source at SCE I'm speaking about
that at a BCS event in London next week, which will include a demo of
the Linux for PlayStation 2 kit again. I think there are details on
the BCS website, you may need to be a member as it's the launch of
their open source SIG (hurrah!).

I'm not sure what you've seen Tet, but contrary to screwing over Manu
and the xRhino guys we're actually hosting the whole apt repository
for the Blackrhino port. (!)

We're hosting precompiled versions of some handy packages, among
development and graphics projects, on http://playstation2-linux.com,
and the FAQ is growing fairly comprehensive:
http://playstation2-linux.com/faq.php
..I'm always open to new questions to stick on there.

The kit is 99 Euros + delivery + tax, if you can claim any educational
connection at all, and  149 Euros otherwise. So 200 quid is way off
for an asking price! Order from http//linuxplay.com. If you(anyone)
think your Uni would want to install a handful of kits, speak to me
and I can help you with original size PlayStation 2 units.

It's probably best to mail me if you've got any more questions before
I'm accused of advertising :\ I've written way more than I was going
to, sorry.

Sarah.
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